A closer look
Americans experienced an absolutely massive toilet paper shortage in 1973 directly caused by a joke made by late-night television host Johnny Carson. Humor based on a minor commercial press release prompted millions of terrified citizens to immediately sprint to the stores and hoard every single roll they could find. Panicked buying actually created the exact shortage Carson was joking about, leaving supermarkets entirely barren of bathroom tissue for nearly a month. It is incredibly sobering to realize that forty-seven years before the exact same thing happened during a global pandemic, the fragile psyche of the consumer economy could be completely destroyed by a comedian making a passing bathroom joke
